In the end, it is a numbers game. And Mohamed Salah’s numbers tell the tale. Twenty-eight goals. Eighteen assists. The player who scored the most goals and set up the most goals has to be the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year.
That total of 46 combined goals and assists is 17 more than Alexander Isak and almost double that of any other Premier League player. Never in the competition’s history has there been a bigger gap between the man with the most goal involvements and the rest.
When those outrageous numbers also delivered the Premier League title for Liverpool, there can be no serious argument for any other candidate. Salah was the difference maker this season, the decisive figure for the outstanding team in the land.
He set the tone by scoring in his first three games but really wrapped it up with his scoring streak later in the year. There was the equaliser against Arsenal, the winner against Brighton and two as Liverpool came from behind again to beat Southampton.
It was Salah’s goal that sealed victory against Manchester City at the start of December before twice away to Newcastle and again at Tottenham. By the turn of the year, Salah had 30 combined goals and assists before anyone else had mustered 20 of them.
Salah’s spectacular season is also a tale of unparalleled longevity. It is eight years now since he signed for Liverpool from Roma and seven since he became the Premier League’s top scorer for the first time. This makes it the longest span of wins in this era.
Speaking to Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former head of research, at the start of the season, he told Sky Sports: “We were beaten to Mo Salah by Chelsea in 2014 but the player we got in 2017 was much closer to the finished product.” Even he could not have expected this.
“When we signed Mo, it was not clear that he was going to be our best player,” he conceded. “For Jurgen [Klopp] to understand the player he was getting is great credit to him.” The same can be said of Arne Slot for coaxing even more from Salah this season.
At the age of 32, there were no guarantees. Conventional wisdom might have suggested that the Dutchman was inheriting someone on the slide. Salah had once battled with Eden Hazard to be the league’s best winger. Hazard is born in 1991. Salah in 1992.
Slot is now being talked of as a potential Bob Paisley to Klopp’s Bill Shankly, but there were whispers in the summer that this might prove to be more akin to Graeme Souness replacing Kenny Dalglish given the number of key players already into their thirties.
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Salah’s form, not to mention his physical conditioning, has made a mockery of such suggestions. Asked by Sky Sports whether Slot has played a part in making him better, Salah replied: “You see the numbers, it seems so! Now I don’t have to defend much.”
Expanding on that change, he added: “It is quite difficult to say one thing, but the tactics are quite different. But I told him, ‘As long as you rest me defensively, I will provide offensively’ – so I’m glad I did. It was the manager’s idea of course, but he listens a lot.”
The result of these tweaks is that far from inheriting a fading force, Slot has been able to take advantage of one of the best versions of Salah. Not the young tearaway of his Basel days and not even the explosive figure who first shook the Kop, but something else.
Salah is more considered now. Not one of his 28 Premier League goals this season have come from outside the penalty box. That is not because he has forgotten how to shoot, he is just making different decisions. That decision-making sets him apart.
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There is an economy of movement, but an efficiency to this thinking. He has created far more clear-cut chances for his team-mates than any other Premier League player. His assist for Luis Diaz’s goal against West Ham recently was a prime example of this.
“Sometimes it is about the scorer, this is about the assist,” Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “That pass is absolute perfection from Salah. The weight of it, outside of the boot. We have seen it so often this season – Salah is not just about goals.”
Those goals and assists have helped win Liverpool the title, repaying Slot for his trust in him. Mohamed Salah is not finished yet, having signed a new contract at the club. But this season will take some topping. He is the definitive FWA Footballer of the Year.